Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter is an Indian legend published as an annex to Somadeva Bhaṭṭa's work, related to Cupid and Psyche.
The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or Search for the Lost Husband: Tulisa, a woodcutter's daughter, agrees to marry the owner of a mysterious voice, and her father consents to their marriage and eventually becomes rich. Tulisa discovers the identity of her husband – a prince of serpents named Basnak Dau - and loses him, but eventually finds him. She helps Basnak Dau regain his former throne and they live together happily at last.Dunlop, Colin John. History of Prose Fiction. Vol. I. London: George Bell and Sons. 1896. pp. 110-112 (footnote nr. 2)
Source French folklorist Emmanuel Cosquin claimed that the tale was first collected in 1833, from a washerwoman in Benares (Varanasi).Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome II. Deuxiéme Tirage. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 225-227. An English language version of the tale, published in 1842, in The Asiatic Journal, claimed that the tale was "a great favourite amongst the people of Hindustan".
Synopsis
Tulisa, the beautiful daughter of a poor woodcutter (Nur Singh, or Nursingh), approaches a fountain, when she hears a voice, with a most strange proposition: "Will you marry me?". Not knowing whose voice it is, she pays no heed. The episode repeats a few times, and she tells her father of the curious happening.
Her would-be suitor is the Prince (or King) of Snakes, Basnak Dau, and promises riches to Tulisa's father, in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage. She relents to the proposal and moves into a splendid palace. Tulisa marries the mysterious owner of the voice, under the condition that she may never see her husband when he comes to the bridal bed, at night, and that she must not receive any visitor.
At a certain point, she helps a squirrel, who tells her it will return the favor in the future. One day, an old lady (a creature named Sarkasukis, in disguise) was helped by Tulisa into the palace. In conversation with the mistress of the house, the old lady persuades Tulisa into asking the name of her husband. The fateful day arrives: when Tulisa asks him the question, he answers his name is "Basnak Dau", and suddenly the palace and the prince vanish, and leave her there, alone.
Tulisa returns to her parents, once again in poverty. One day, she receives the visit of the grateful squirrel, and learns of the mystery of her husband: he is the Prince of Snakes, dethroned by his own mother. If she succeeds in taking the eyes from the snake that coils around the Queen's neck, by a specific bird (the Huma bird), the Queen will be defeated and the true King restored.
Tulisa and the squirrel arrive at the palace of the Queen of the Serpents in order to fulfill the tasks assigned to her, thanks to the squirrel's help. First, she receives a crystal casket and must fill it with the perfume of a thousand flowers, but she is guided to a walled garden. Suddenly, a swarm of bees come buzzing into the garden, bringing the scent of flowers in bags. Next, Tulisa is to change a bag full of seeds into precious stones: many squirrels come, chew the seeds and transform them into precious stones.
The last quest is to steal the egg of the Huma bird, across a moat filled with poisonous snakes. Tulisa, with the help of bees and squirrels, manages to accomplish the task.
Translations
The tale was published in the West in German as Tulisa and Basnak Dau in Hermann Brockhaus' selections from the Somadeva Bhaṭṭa (Leipzig, 1843)"Der Holzhauer Tochter" In: Brockhaus, Hermann. Die Mährchensammlung des Somadeva Bhatta aus Kaschmir. Zweiter Theil. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus. 1843. pp. 189-211. and widely distributed through Ausland magazine (also 1843).Morton, Marsha Max Klinger and Wilhelmine Culture. 2014 p. 238. The tale was also translated into German by Franz Hoffmann with the title Die Tochter des Holzfällers (Ein Märchen aus Hindostan).Hoffmann, Franz. Taschenbuch für die deutsche Jugend. Stuttgart: Verlag von Schimdt & Spring. 1844. pp. 272-294. and Die Holzbauer Tochter.Thorpe, Benjamin. Yule-tide stories: a collection of Scandinavian and North German popular tales and traditions, from the Swedish, Danish, and German. London; New York: G. Bell. 1910. pp. 11-34.Kletke, Hermann. Märchensaal: Märchen aller völker für jung und alt. Dritter Band. Berlin: C. Reimarus. 1845. pp. 30-42.
It was also published in English in sources such as Household Tales from the East in The Dublin University Magazine in 1869."The Woodman's Daughter". In: Dublin University Magazine. Vol. LXXIV. July to December, 1869. pp. 109-115. The tale also circulated in English with titles such as The Wood-Cutter's Daughter and the Mysterious Voice in the compilation The Ruby Fairy Book;The Ruby fairy book. Comprising stories by Jules Le Maitre, J. Wenzig, Flora Schmals, F.C. Younger, Luigi Capuani, John C. Winder, Canning Williams, Daniel Riche and others; with 78 illustrations by H.R. Millar. London: Hutchinson & Co. pp. 81-97. The Wood-cutter's Daughter, in The Asiatic Journal; and Tulisa (A Hindoo Wonder Tale).Martens, Frederick Herman. Wonder tales from far away. New York: R. M. McBride & company, 1924. pp. 249-270.
The tale was also translated to Czech and published in some editions of literary supplement Česká Včela (cs) in 1844 (in segmented format), with the title Drwoštěpowa dcera.Česká Včela. Vol. 11. W Prahe. Čislo 46-50. pp. 181-182, 185-186, 189-190, 193-194 and 197-198.
The tale was also translated into French as La Fille du Bûcheron, and the translator noted its "remarkable analogy to the classic fable of Psyche".Revue Britannique. Cinquième Sèrie, Tome 15. Paris: Au Bureau de la Revue, 1843. pp. 190 (footnote nr. 1), 190-210.
Analysis Tale type
Later commentators saw common elements with Cupid and Psyche, as written by Apuleius in The Golden Ass.Hahn, Johann Georg von. Griechische und Albanesische Märchen 1-2. München/Berlin: Georg Müller. 1918 . pp. 481-482. German philologist Ludwig Friedländer and Adolf Zinzow, for instance, treated The Tale of Tulisa as part of the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories: heroine marrying supernatural or animal husband and losing him soon after, then having to search for him.Friedländer, Ludwig. Roman life and manners under the early Empire. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. pp. 112-115, 122-123.Zinzow, Adolf. Psyche und Eros: ein milesisches märchen in der darstellung und auffassung des Apulejus beleuchtet und auf seinen mythologischen zusammenhang, gehalt und ursprung zurückgeführt. Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses. 1888. pp. 302-321.
Folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polívka, in their Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm, Second Volume, listed the tale of Tulisa as a variant of German folktale The Singing, Springing Lark, collected by the Brothers Grimm, which is another variant of the Cupid and Psyche and Animal as Bridegroom tales.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Zweiter Band (NR. 61-120). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 259-260. In the same vein, Folklorist Joseph Jacobs, in his book Europa's Fairy Book, mentioned the tale of Tulisa as having some sort of connection to the Graeco-Roman story, namely, their common motifs: the invisible husband; the violation of taboo; the mother-in-law's tasks; the wife's triumph at the end.Jacobs, Joseph. European Folk and Fairy Tales. New York, London: G. P. Putnam's sons. 1916. pp. 246-249.
Danish folklore researcher Inger Margrethe Boberg also cited the tale of Tulisa in her study on the story of Cupid and Psyche.Boberg, I.M. (1938). "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Classica et Medievalia 1: 186, 214.
Swedish scholar considered the story of Tulisa close to his type A, which consists of tales wherein the heroine is forced to perform tasks for a witch or for her mother-in-law.Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. pp. 129, 130-131.
Motifs In his work about Cupid and Psyche and other Animal as Bridegroom tales, Swedish scholar identified that, in certain tales, the heroine causes her supernatural husband's disappearance by inquiring his name. Swahn named this motif The Name Taboo and surmised that it occurred "primarily in India".Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. pp. 238, 251.
Variants Europe Romani people Transylvanian linguist Heinrich von Wlislocki collected and published a "Zigeunermärchen" from the Romani titled O thágár sápengré or Der Schlangenkönig (English: "The Snake King"). He noted the great resemblance to the Indian story of Tulisa: a girl named Lolerme goes to the forest to fetch firewood and finds some pieces of gold on the ground. She picks one up and sees that they make a trail to a cavern entry. When she sits to rest, a giant snake with "a head shining like gold" and a red beard appears and introduces itself as the King of Snakes, who has fallen in love with Lolerme. The girl is frightened at first but the snake reveals it wants to give her mother great wealth. They marry and she lives a comfortable life, but her husband comes at night in human form. One day, a pregnant Lolerme helps an ugly old woman in front of the cave; she advises the girl who asks herself who the father of the child is, and about the youth that comes at night. She does so: the youth reveals himself to be the Snake King who the ugly old woman, a witch, cursed into serpent form. The youth curses his wife that she will not give birth, nor she will ever see him again, and vanishes. Desolate, Lolerme cries on the forest ground, until a giant cat approaches her and gives her the egg of the Tscharana bird (de), which, if roosted, will hatch a bird that can kill the witch and bring her husband back. Johannes Bolte and Jiří Polívka also listed Wislocki's tale as another variant of The Singing, Springing Lark.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Zweiter Band (NR. 61-120). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. p. 258. Danish scholar Inger Margrethe Boberg noted that the Lolerme story corresponded to Tulisa, although it lacked the long wandering of type 425A, and the tasks of type 425B.Boberg, I. M. (1938). "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Classica et Medievalia 1: 186.
Albania